Methods and apparatus for nonintrusive monitoring of web browser usage

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus for nonintrusive monitoring of web browser usage are disclosed. An example method for monitoring web browsing disclosed herein comprises obtaining a video signal from a video output of a device implementing a web browser, processing a video image obtained from the video signal to identify a region of the video image displaying at least a portion of the web browser, determining textual information displayed by the web browser in the identified region of the video image, and using the textual information to record usage of the web browser.

RELATED APPLICATION

This patent claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No.61/044,266, entitled “Methods and Apparatus for Nonintrusive Monitoringof Web Browser Usage” and filed on Apr. 11, 2008. U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 61/044,266 is hereby incorporated by reference inits entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to audience measurement and, moreparticularly, to methods and apparatus for nonintrusive monitoring ofweb browser usage.

BACKGROUND

The web browser is rapidly becoming an important venue for reaching andinteracting with consumers. For example, electronic commerce, orecommerce, has become a significant, if not primary, revenue source formany retailers of products and services. Web sites and online contentproviders are now competing with traditional broadcast and cablenetworks to deliver media content to audiences across all demographics.Increasingly, advertisers are paying to embed advertisements incommonly-accessed web sites. Through web browser usage monitoring,insight into the habits and preferences of online consumers can begained. Armed with this insight, retailers, content providers,advertisers, etc., can adapt their online presence to improve theirreach and interaction with consumers.

Many conventional web browser monitoring techniques require one or moresoftware applications to be installed and executed on the computer (or,more generally, computing device) implementing the monitored webbrowser. Additionally, these resident software applications may requireaccess to the network infrastructure providing network connectivity forthe monitored computer to report monitored data to a central datacollection facility. However, many businesses and commercialenterprises, and even some individuals, are reluctant to have suchthird-party applications installed and executed on their computers. Thisreluctance can stem from specific concerns regarding increased risks ofviruses or incompatibilities with existing software configurations, tomore general concerns about the increased amount of person-hours neededto support the additional software application(s) running on theenterprise's computer network(s).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first example system utilizing a firstexample web browser monitor configuration to perform nonintrusivemonitoring of web browser usage.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a second example system utilizing a secondexample web browser monitor configuration to perform nonintrusivemonitoring of web browser usage.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a third example system utilizing a thirdexample web browser monitor configuration to perform nonintrusivemonitoring of web browser usage.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an example web browser monitor includingan example graphical recognition processor and an example textualrecognition processor that may be used to implement the respectivefirst, second and/or third example web browser monitor configurations ofFIGS. 1, 2 and/or 3.

FIG. 4B is a block diagram of an example web browser monitor includingan example color recognition processor in addition to the examplegraphical recognition processor and the example textual recognitionprocessor that may be used to implement the respective first, secondand/or third example web browser monitor configurations of FIGS. 1, 2and/or 3.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to implement the example web browsermonitors of FIGS. 4A and/or 4B.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to perform graphical recognitionprocessing to implement the example machine readable instructions ofFIG. 5 and/or the example graphical recognition processor included inthe example web browser monitors of FIGS. 4A and/or 4B.

FIG. 7A is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to perform textual recognitionprocessing to implement the example machine readable instructions ofFIG. 5 and/or the example textual recognition processor included in theexample web browser monitors of FIGS. 4A and/or 4B.

FIG. 7B is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to perform color recognitionprocessing to implement the example machine readable instructions ofFIG. 5 and/or the example color recognition processor included in theexample web browser monitor of FIG. 4B.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart representative of example machine readableinstructions that may be executed to implement an example centralprocessing facility for use in the example systems of FIGS. 1, 2 and/or3.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example computer that may execute theexample machine readable instructions of FIGS. 5, 6, 7A, 7B and/or 8 toimplement the example web browser monitors of FIGS. 4A and/or 4B, and/orthe example systems of FIGS. 1, 2 and/or 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As discussed above, many businesses and commercial enterprises, and evensome individuals, are reluctant to have conventional web browsermonitoring applications installed and executed on their computers overconcerns regarding, for example, increased risks of viruses,incompatibilities with existing software configurations, additionalburdens on computer support staff, etc. FIGS. 1-3 illustrate examplesystems that implement nonintrusive techniques for web browsermonitoring according to the methods and/or apparatus described hereinthat may alleviate some, if not all, of these concerns. Accordingly, atleast under some circumstances, the example systems of FIGS. 1-3 canincrease the number and breadth of locations/computers able to bemonitored.

Although nonintrusive techniques are available for monitoring exposureto television broadcasts and other media content, many such techniquesare not conducive to monitoring web browser usage. For example, someexisting techniques perform nonintrusive monitoring of televisionbroadcasts by capturing and processing images corresponding to atelevision display. Some of these techniques rely on predeterminedand/or stationary regions of the display to determine where to look forchannel and/or program identification information. However, in a typicalcomputing environment, the web browser may be positioned and/or sized tofit anywhere within the computer display. Because the display region(s)containing the web browser are not predetermined, many televisiontechniques relying on predetermined regions containing channel and/orprogram identification information are not suited to web browsermonitoring. Additionally, much of a computer's display is stationary (orsemi-stationary with moving video played in only a portion of theoverall display), as compared to a television whose entire display areaincludes moving video except where stationary channel and/or programidentification information is displayed. Thus, existing televisionmonitoring techniques relying on stationary regions to locate channeland/or program identification information are not suited for web browsermonitoring because they cannot readily distinguish between thestationary (or semi-stationary) window(s)/region(s) corresponding to aweb browser and the stationary (or semi-stationary) window(s)/region(s)corresponding to other executing applications (e.g., such as an openemail application, word processing application, etc.), or even thegeneral background and desktop icons, menu bars, etc., presented by atypical computer display.

Turning to the figures, a first example system 100 supportingnonintrusive monitoring of web browser usage according to the methodsand/or apparatus described herein is illustrated in FIG. 1. The examplesystem 100 includes a first example web browser monitor 105 arranged ina first example configuration for monitoring a web browser 110. The webbrowser monitor 105 is able to monitor usage of any type of web browser110, such as, for example, Microsoft's Internet Explorer® browser,Mozilla's Firefox® browser, Apple's Safari® browser, Opera Software'sOpera® browser, any type of wireless application protocol (WAP) browserfor operation on a mobile device, etc.

In the illustrated example, the web browser 110 is implemented by acomputer 115 and displayed via a monitor 120. However, any type ofcomputing device (e.g., such as the computer 115 of the illustratedexample) and display device (e.g., such as the monitor 120 of theillustrated example) could be used to implement and display any type ofweb browser to be monitored by the web browser monitor 105. For example,the computing device 115 could alternatively be implemented by a cableand/or satellite set-top box, a dedicated Internet appliance, a gameconsole, etc., and/or the display device 120 could alternatively beimplemented by any type of television. Furthermore, in some exampleimplementations, the computing device 115 and the display device 120 areintegrated into a single consumer device. For example, the computingdevice 115 and the display device 120 could alternatively be integratedinto a laptop/notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), amobile telephone (e.g., such as a smartphone), etc.

In the example system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1, the example web browsermonitor 105 monitors the web browser 110 nonintrusively (e.g., withoutrequiring software to be installed and/or executed on the monitoreddevice) by accessing a video cable connection coupling the computer 115with the monitor 120. To access the video cable connection, the exampleweb browser monitor 105 includes a video interface 125 that implements avideo splitter to split a video signal output by the computer 115 andcarried via a first video cable connection 130. The video splitterimplemented by the video interface 125 routes the video signal output bythe computer 115 to the monitor 120 via a second video cable connection135. Additionally, the video splitter implemented by the video interface125 accepts the video signal output by the computer 115 for input to theexample web browser monitor 105. In an alternative exampleimplementation involving an integrated computer 115 and monitor 120(e.g., such as a laptop/notebook computer, a PDA, a mobile telephone(e.g., such as a smartphone), etc.), the video splitter implemented bythe video interface 125 can accept a video signal output by theintegrated computing device (e.g., via a video port allowing connectionof the integrated device to an external display device) for input to theexample web browser monitor 105, with the second cable connection 135being unused.

The example web browser monitor 105 included in the example system 100processes the video signal output by the computer 115 and received viathe video interface 125 to monitor the web browser 110 without requiringany software applications to be installed and executed on the computer115. Instead, the example web browser monitor 105 captures video imagesfrom the video signal received via the video interface 125. The exampleweb browser monitor 105 then performs graphical recognition processingon some or all of the captured video images to identify region(s) of thecaptured video image(s) consistent with a display of the web browser 110or specific portions of the web browser 110. Upon identifying one ormore regions of a captured video image consistent with the display ofthe web browser 110, the example web browser monitor 105 extracts theidentified region(s) from the captured video image. The web browsermonitor 105 then performs textual recognition processing on theextracted region(s) to determine any textual information displayed inthe extracted region(s). The textual information is processed todetermine whether it corresponds to textual information displayed by theweb browser 110 and, if so, the web browser monitor 105 stores andreports the textual information to a central processing facility 140.

For example, after capturing a video image from the video signalreceived via the video interface 125, the web browser monitor 105 of theillustrated example performs graphical recognition processing on thecaptured video image to identify region(s) of interest consistent withthe display of the web browser 110. In the illustrated example, thegraphical recognition processing includes a feature extraction process.The feature extraction performed by the example web browser 105includes, for example, edge detection, corner detection and/or blobdetection techniques tailored to identify and extract rectangularregions corresponding to, for example, an address bar 145 and/or a titlebar 150 of the web browser 110. In a typical web browser implementation,the address bar 145 is configured to display an address 155 of a webpage being presented by the web browser 110. The address 155 may be, forexample, a uniform resource locator (URL) or a numeric Internet protocol(IP) address for the presented web page. A typical web browserimplementation also includes the title bar 150 to display a title 160for the web page being presented by the web browser 110.

After identifying and extracting region(s) corresponding to the addressbar 145 and/or title bar 150 (or portions thereof) in the captured videoimage, the web browser monitor 105 of the illustrated example stores theextracted region(s) as images for subsequent textual recognitionprocessing. Additionally, the web browser monitor 105 may store locationinformation (e.g., such as X-Y coordinates) corresponding to theposition of each extracted region(s) within the captured video image. Inan example implementation, the web browser monitor 105 is configured toperform textual recognition processing (e.g., pattern recognition), suchas optical character recognition (OCR), on the extracted image region(s)to identify one or more text strings consistent with an address of a webpage presented by the web browser 110. For example, the web browsermonitor 105 of the illustrated example operates on character stringsidentified via OCR processing to search for a text string matching aknown format of a URL or a numeric IP address for a web page.

Upon identifying a text string matching a known URL or numeric IPaddress format, the web browser monitor 105 extracts the matching textand tags the text as corresponding to the address 155 of a web pagebeing displayed by the web browser 110. Additionally, the example webbrowser monitor 105 tags the extracted image region containing thematching text as corresponding to the address bar 145 of the web browser110. If there are other extracted region(s) available to process, theweb browser monitor 105 of the illustrated example also performs patternrecognition, such as OCR, on the other extracted image region(s) toidentify and extract, for example, the title 160 displayed in the titlebar 150 of the web browser 110. For example, after processing andtagging an extracted region corresponding to the address bar 145, theexample web browser monitor 105 may select and perform OCR processing onanother available extracted region positioned above the address bar 145to determine whether the region corresponds to the title bar 150. Iftextual information is found in the selected region, the example webbrowser monitor 105 extracts and tags the text as corresponding to thetitle 160 of the web page being displayed by the web browser 110.Additionally, the example web browser monitor 105 tags the selectedimage region as corresponding to the title bar 150 of the web browser110. The example web browser monitor 105 may then continue processingavailable extracted regions to support situations in which more than oneweb browser 110 is currently being displayed via the monitor 120.

After processing all the available extracted region(s) in the capturedvideo image, the example web browser monitor 105 stores any extractedand tagged text corresponding to the address 155 and/or title 160 forreporting to the central processing facility 140. For example, the webbrowser monitor 105 may be configured to store and report this monitoredweb browser address and/or title information at predetermined timeintervals and/or upon occurrence of particular events (e.g., such as aprompt from the central processing facility 140 to the web browsermonitor 105 to report any available web browser monitoring data). Toreport the monitored web browser address and/or title information, theexample web browser monitor 105 includes a network interface 165. In theillustrated example, the network interface 165 of the example webbrowser monitor 105 is configured to interface with the same accessnetwork 170 providing network connectivity for the computer 115. Theaccess network 170 may be implemented by any type of access network,such as, for example, a company/enterprise local area network (LAN), abroadband cable network, a broadband satellite network, broadband mobilecellular network, an Internet service provider (ISP), a dial-upconnection, etc. In the illustrated example, the access network 170provides access to the Internet 175 or any other wide area network toallow the example web browser monitor 105 to report the monitored webbrowser address and/or title information to the central processingfacility 140 using any appropriate data communication protocol.

In the illustrated example, the central processing facility 140 isconfigured to receive web browser monitoring data, such as, for example,monitored web browser address and/or title information, from one or moreweb browser monitors, such as the example web browser monitor 105 asshown. The central processing facility 140 processes the received webbrowser monitoring data to determine, for example, the web site(s)accessed and/or web page(s) presented by the monitored web browser(s).In an example implementation, the central processing facility 140 usesreceived web browser address information in the form of, for example,URLs and/or numeric IP addresses to determine the web site(s) accessedby the monitored web browser(s). If the returned web browser addressinformation is complete (e.g., was displayed fully within a particularmonitored web browser's address bar), the central processing facility140 may use the address information to determine the particular webpage(s) presented by the monitored web browser(s) in addition or as analternative to determining the web site(s) accessed by the monitored webbrowser(s). However, if the web browser address information isincomplete (e.g., not displayed fully within the monitored web browser'saddress bar), the central processing facility 140 may use the receivedtitle information, alone or in combination with any available, butincomplete, address information, to further identify the web page(s)presented by the monitored web browser(s).

To provide an indication that the web browser monitor 105 has beenconfigured properly, the web browser monitor 105 of the illustratedexample includes a video interface activity indicator 180. The videointerface activity indicator 180 is asserted/activated when a validvideo signal is detected at the video interface 125. Thus, the videointerface activity indicator 180 indicates whether the web browsermonitor 105 has been configured correctly and is receiving the videosignal being output by the computer 115 and carried via the first videoconnection 130. Although depicted as a light in the illustrated example,the video interface activity indicator 180 may be implemented using anytype or combination of indicator devices, such as one or more light(s),light emitting diode(s), liquid crystal display(s), sound emitter(s),speaker(s), etc., or any combination thereof which, whenasserted/activated, indicate that the web browser monitor 105 isreceiving a valid video signal at the video interface 125.

A block diagram of a second example system 200 supporting nonintrusivemonitoring of web browser usage according to the methods and/orapparatus described herein is illustrated in FIG. 2. The example system200 includes a second example web browser monitor 205 arranged in asecond example configuration for monitoring the web browser 110. Thesecond example system 200 includes many elements in common with thefirst example system 100 of FIG. 1. As such, like elements in FIGS. 1and 2 are labeled with the same reference numerals. These like elementsinclude, for example, the web browser 110, the computer 115, the monitor120, the video interface 125, the first video cable connection 130, thesecond video cable connection 135, the central processing facility 140,the address bar 145, the title bar 150, the address 155, the title 160,the access network 170, the Internet 175 and the video interfaceactivity indicator 180. The detailed descriptions of these like elementsare provided above in connection with the discussion of FIG. 1 and, inthe interest of brevity, are not repeated in the discussion of FIG. 2.

Turning to FIG. 2, the second example web browser monitor 205 isconfigured to nonintrusively monitor the web browser 110 in a mannersimilar to the first example web browser monitor 105 of FIG. 1. Forexample, like the first example web browser monitor 105 of FIG. 1, thesecond example web browser monitor 205 of FIG. 2 is configured to: (i)capture video image(s) from the video signal received via the videointerface 125, (ii) perform graphical recognition processing on at leastsome of the captured video image(s) to identify and extract one or moreregions of the processed video image(s) consistent with a display of theweb browser 110 or specific portions of the web browser 110, (iii)perform textual recognition processing on the extracted region(s) toidentify and extract textual information displayed by the web browser110 and (iv) store and report the textual information to the centralprocessing facility 140.

However, unlike the first example web browser monitor 105, the secondexample web browser monitor 205 includes a network interface 265configured to interface with a second access network 270 different fromthe first access network 170 providing network connectivity for thecomputer 115. By interfacing with the second access network 270 insteadof the first access network 170 to report web browser monitoring datavia the Internet 170 to the central processing facility 140, the secondexample web browser monitor 205 can operate even more autonomously, atleast in some environments, than the first example web browser monitor105. The second access network 270 may be implemented by, for example, abroadband mobile cellular network as depicted in the illustratedexample, or any other type of broadband network, ISP, LAN, dial-upconnection, etc.

A block diagram of a third example system 300 supporting nonintrusivemonitoring of web browser usage according to the methods and/orapparatus described herein is illustrated in FIG. 3. The example system300 includes a third example web browser monitor 305 arranged in a thirdexample configuration for monitoring the web browser 110. The thirdexample system 300 includes many elements in common with the firstexample system 100 and the second example system 200 of FIGS. 1 and 2,respectively. As such, like elements in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are labeledwith the same reference numerals. These like elements include, forexample, the web browser 110, the computer 115, the monitor 120, thecentral processing facility 140, the address bar 145, the title bar 150,the address 155, the title 160, the first access network 170, theInternet 175, the video interface activity indicator 180, the networkinterface 265 and the second access network 270. The detaileddescriptions of these like elements are provided above in connectionwith the discussions of FIGS. 1-2 and, in the interest of brevity, arenot repeated in the discussion of FIG. 3.

Turning to FIG. 3, the third example web browser monitor 305 isconfigured to nonintrusively monitor the web browser 110 in a mannersimilar to the first example web browser monitor 105 of FIG. 1. Forexample, like the first example web browser monitor 105 of FIG. 1, thethird example web browser monitor 305 of FIG. 3 is configured to: (i)capture one or more video image(s) corresponding to a video signaloutput by the computer 115, (ii) perform graphical recognitionprocessing on at least some of the captured video image(s) to identifyand extract one or more regions of the processed video image(s)corresponding to a display of the web browser 110 or specific portionsof the web browser 110, (iii) perform textual recognition processing onthe extracted region(s) to identify and extract textual informationdisplayed by the web browser 110 and (iv) store and report the textualinformation to the central processing facility 140. Additionally, likethe second example web browser monitor 205 of FIG. 2, the third exampleweb browser monitor 305 of FIG. 3 includes the network interface 265 tointerface with the second access network 270, which is different fromthe first access network 170 providing network connectivity for thecomputer 115.

However, unlike the first example web browser monitor 105 or the secondexample web browser monitor 205, the third example web browser monitor305 includes a video interface 325 implementing an image sensor, acamera or similar optical device positioned to capture real-time imagesof the monitor 120 without requiring a physical connection to either themonitor 120 or computer 115. As such, in the example system 300, thevideo signal output by the computer 115 can be directly coupled to themonitor 120 via a cable connection 330. In other words, the typicalconfiguration of the computer 115 monitor 120, and the first accessnetwork 170, is unchanged by the introduction of the third example webbrowser monitor 305. By using the image sensor-based video interface 325rather than the cable-based (e.g., wired) video interface 125 to capturevideo images corresponding to the video signal output by the computer115, and by interfacing with the second access network 270 instead ofthe first access network 170 to report web browser monitoring data viathe Internet 170 to the central processing facility 140, the thirdexample web browser monitor 305 can operate autonomously andnonintrusively to collect web access data.

Although three different web browser monitor configurations have beenillustrated in the examples of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, web browser monitoringaccording to the methods and apparatus described herein is not limitedthereto. Other equivalent configurations are contemplated by the webbrowser monitoring methods and apparatus described herein.

A block diagram of an example web browser monitor 400 implementedaccording to the methods and apparatus described herein, and that may beused to implement the first example web browser monitor 105 of FIG. 1,the second example web browser monitor 205 of FIG. 2 and/or the thirdexample web browser monitor 305 of FIG. 3, is illustrated in FIG. 4A.The example web browser monitor 400 illustrated in FIG. 4A includes avideo interface 405 to accept a video signal corresponding to a device(e.g., such as the computer 115 and/or the monitor 120) implementing aweb browser to be monitored (e.g., such as the web browser 110).Additionally, the example video interface 405 is configured to capturevideo images from the received video signal for subsequent processing bythe example web browser monitor 400.

To accept the video signal corresponding to the device implementing themonitored web browser (referred to herein as the “monitored device”),the example video interface 405 includes a video connector 410configured to electrically couple with a video output of the monitoreddevice. For example, the video connector 410 may be implemented tointerface with a video graphics array (VGA) cable coupled with themonitored device, an S-video cable coupled with the monitored device, acomposite video cable coupled with the monitored device, etc. The videoconnector 410 of the illustrated example also implements a videosplitter 412 to allow the applied video signal to still be routed to theappropriate display device (e.g., such as the monitor 120). Additionallyor alternatively, the example video interface 405 includes an imagesensor 415 configured to be positionable to capture video imagescorresponding to a video display produced by the monitored device (e.g.,such as a video display of the monitor 120 produced by the computer115). For example, the image sensor 415 may be implemented by any typeof camera or optical sensor, such as a web cam, mobile phone camera,etc.

To process video images captured by the video interface 405, the exampleweb browser monitor 400 includes a graphical recognition processor 420.The example graphical recognition processor 420 is configured toidentify and extract one or more region(s) of a captured video imagecorresponding to at least a portion of a monitored web browser. Forexample, the graphical recognition processor 420 of the illustratedexample is configured to identify and extract region(s) of the capturedvideo image displaying at least a portion of an address bar (e.g., suchas the address bar 145) and/or at least a portion of a title bar (e.g.,such as the title bar 150) of the monitored web browser. To perform suchregion identification and extraction, the graphical recognitionprocessor 420 implements a feature extractor 425. The feature extractor425 of the illustrated example implements any appropriate graphicalrecognition operation, such as edge detection, corner detection, blobdetection, etc., or any combination thereof, to identify one or morerectangular regions corresponding to the displayed address bar and/ortitle bar of the monitored web browser.

Upon identifying one or more such rectangular regions, the featureextractor 425 of the illustrated example extracts the identifiedregion(s) from the captured video image, tags the location(s) of theextracted region(s), and provides the extracted image region(s) andtagged location(s) to a textual recognition processor 430. The exampletextual recognition processor 430 is configured to identify and extracttextual information displayed in the extracted image region(s) providedby the example graphical recognition processor 420. For example, thetextual recognition processor 430 of the illustrated example operates oninput image region(s) to identify and extract text corresponding toaddress information displayed in an address bar of the monitored webbrowser, title information displayed in a title bar of the monitored webbrowser, etc. To identify and extract such textual information, thetextual recognition processor 430 implements an OCR processor 435. TheOCR processor 435 of the illustrated example implements any appropriateOCR technique for determining textual information included in an image.

When the OCR processor 435 determines that textual information isincluded in an input image region, the example textual recognitionprocessor 430 extracts the text and determines whether it corresponds toan address displayed in the address bar of the monitored web browser. Inthe illustrated example, to determine whether the extracted textcorresponds to an address displayed in the monitored web browser'saddress bar, the textual recognition processor 430 determines whetherthe extracted text matches a known format of a URL or a numeric IPaddress for a web page. For example, the textual recognition processor430 may search the extracted text for one or more strings matchingpossible URL schemes, such as: (1) the string “http://”, (2) the string“https://”, (3) the string “ftp://”, (4) the string “news://”, etc.Additionally or alternatively, the textual recognition processor 430 maysearch the extracted text for one or more strings indicative of a startof a URL (e.g., such as the strings “www.”, “ftp.”, etc.), one or morestrings indicative of an end of a URL (e.g., such as the strings “.com”,“.edu”, “.gov”, “.org”, etc., and/or any other possible domainsuffixes), and/or one or more sequences of two or three strings of textseparated by periods (e.g., such as “www.xzy.com” or “xyz.com”).Furthermore, the textual recognition processor 430 may search theextracted text for strings indicative of a numeric IP address of theform “###.###.###.###” (e.g., such as “123.45.67.8”) in which each groupof pounds signs (“###”) represents a number ranging from 0 to 255.

The example textual recognition processor 430 may also be configured tosearch for certain combinations of the strings mentioned above tofurther determine whether the extracted text matches a format of a URL.For example, the textual recognition processor 430 may be configured tosearch for combinations of the above-mentioned strings corresponding toa complete URL of a web server, such as string combinations of the form“http://www.xyz.com”, “https://xyz.com” and the like. In at least someexample implementations, the textual recognition processor 430 may alsobe configured to search for combinations of strings corresponding toonly a partial URL of a web server or a URL of a local web server, suchas string combinations of the form “http://xyz” and the like. Broadlyspeaking, the example textual recognition processor 430 may beconfigured to use any available information from known standards and/orcommon practices to search for text strings and/or combinations of textstrings indicative of URLs.

When text matching the known address format of a web page is found in aninput image region, the example textual recognition processor 430 tagsthe matching text as corresponding to the address (e.g., such as theaddress 155) displayed in the address bar (e.g., such as the address bar145) of the monitored web browser. Additionally, the example textualrecognition processor 430 may tag the input image region ascorresponding to the address bar of the monitored web browser.Furthermore, if there are additional image region(s) to process, theexample textual recognition processor 430 may determine any textualinformation included in these image regions using the OCR processor 435.Based on the positioning of the additional image region(s) (e.g., suchas if an additional image region is located above the previouslydetermined and tagged address bar image region), the example textualrecognition processor 430 may extract and tag the determined textualinformation as corresponding to the title (e.g., such as the title 160)of a web page being presented by the monitored web browser.Additionally, the example textual recognition processor 430 may also tagthe corresponding image region as corresponding to the title bar (e.g.,such as the title bar 150) of the monitored web browser.

Upon identifying, extracting and tagging textual information included inthe input image region(s) as corresponding to the monitored web browser(e.g., such as address and/or title information), the example textualrecognition processor 430 stores the resulting textual information(referred to herein as “web browser monitoring data” or “web browsermonitoring information”) in a storage unit 440 included in the exampleweb browser monitor 400. The storage unit 440 may be implemented by anytype of storage device, memory, etc. The example web browser monitor 400further includes a network interface 445 configured to interface withone or more access networks to enable the web browser monitoring datastored in the storage unit 440 to be reported to the central processingfacility 140.

To interface with one or more access networks, the example networkinterface 445 includes a network cable connector 450. The network cableconnector 445 physically couples the network interface 445 with anaccess network, such as, for example, a LAN, a broadband cable network,a broadband satellite network, a dial-up connection, etc. As such, thenetwork cable connector 450 may be implemented to interface with, forexample, an RJ-45 Ethernet cable, a broadband coaxial cable, an opticalfiber cable, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the example networkinterface 445 includes a wireless network interface 455 configured toaccess a wireless access network, such as, for example, a broadbandmobile cellular network, a wireless LAN, etc.

The web browser monitor 400 of the illustrated example also includes avideo interface activity detector 460 coupled to a video interfaceactivity indicator 465. The example video interface activity detector460 is configured to process the video signal received by the examplevideo interface 405 to detect whether a valid video signal has beenapplied to or received by the example web browser monitor 400. Forexample, the example video interface activity detector 460 may examinean electrical voltage applied to the video interface 405 to detect avalid video signal. Additionally or alternatively, the example videointerface activity detector 460 may determine whether a video signalflicker associated with the refresh rate of a display device is presentto detect a valid video signal.

Upon detecting a valid video signal, the example video interfaceactivity detector 460 asserts/activates the example video interfaceactivity indicator 465. The example video interface activity indicator465 can be used during installation and debug to indicate whether theexample web browser monitor 400 has been configured properly and isreceiving a valid video signal. As discussed above, the example videointerface activity indicator 465 may be implemented using any type orcombination of indicator device(s), such as one or more light(s), lightemitting diode(s), liquid crystal display(s), sound emitter(s),speaker(s), etc., or any combination thereof.

While an example manner of implementing the first example web browsermonitor 105 of FIG. 1, the second example web browser monitor 205 ofFIG. 2 and/or the third example web browser monitor 305 of FIG. 3 hasbeen illustrated in FIG. 4A, one or more of the elements, processesand/or devices illustrated in FIG. 4A may be combined, divided,re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way.Further, the example video interface 405, the example graphicalrecognition processor 420, the example feature extractor 425, theexample textual recognition processor 430, the example OCR processor435, the example network interface 445, the example video interfaceactivity detector 460 and/or, more generally, the example web browsermonitor 400 of FIG. 4A may be implemented by hardware, software,firmware and/or any combination of hardware, software and/or firmware.Thus, for example, any of the example video interface 405, the examplegraphical recognition processor 420, the example feature extractor 425,the example textual recognition processor 430, the example OCR processor435, the example network interface 445, the example video interfaceactivity detector 460 and/or, more generally, the example web browsermonitor 400 could be implemented by one or more circuit(s), programmableprocessor(s), application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)),programmable logic device(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logicdevice(s) (FPLD(s)), etc. When any of the appended claims are read tocover a purely software and/or firmware implementation, at least one ofthe example web browser monitor 400, the example video interface 405,the example graphical recognition processor 420, the example featureextractor 425, the example textual recognition processor 430, theexample OCR processor 435, the example network interface 445 and/or theexample video interface activity detector 460 are hereby expresslydefined to include a tangible medium such as a memory, digital versatiledisk (DVD), compact disk (CD,) etc., storing such software and/orfirmware. Further still, the example web browser monitor 400 of FIG. 4Amay include one or more elements, processes and/or devices in additionto, or instead of, those illustrated in FIG. 4A, and/or may include morethan one of any or all of the illustrated elements, processes anddevices.

A block diagram of another example web browser monitor 470 implementedaccording to the methods and apparatus described herein, and that may beused to implement the first example web browser monitor 105 of FIG. 1,the second example web browser monitor 205 of FIG. 2 and/or the thirdexample web browser monitor 305 of FIG. 3, is illustrated in FIG. 4B.The example web browser monitor 470 of FIG. 4B includes many elements incommon with the example web browser monitor 400 of FIG. 4A. As such,like elements in FIGS. 4A and 4B are labeled with the same referencenumerals. The detailed descriptions of these like elements are providedabove in connection with the discussion of FIG. 4A and, in the interestof brevity, are not repeated in the discussion of FIG. 4B.

Turning to FIG. 4B, the example web browser monitor 470 includes a colorrecognition processor 475 in addition to the example video interface405, the example video connector 410, the example video splitter 412,the example image sensor 415, the example graphical recognitionprocessor 420, the example feature extractor 425, the example textualrecognition processor 430, the example OCR processor 435, the examplestorage unit 440 the example network interface 445, the example networkcable connector 450, the example wireless network interface 455, theexample video interface activity detector 460 and the example videointerface activity indicator 465 included in the example web browsermonitor 400 of FIG. 4A. In the illustrated example, the colorrecognition processor 475 is configured to extract color informationfrom the video image region(s) extracted by the example graphicalrecognition processor 420. The example color recognition processor 475then uses the extracted color information to determine color scheme(s)associated with the video image region(s) undergoing processing. Forexample, a color scheme determined by the color recognition processor475 may include a histogram representing the number of pixels in thevideo image region(s) displaying certain colors of interest.

In an example implementation, a statistical color database is maintainedby the central processing facility 140 to track, for example, thedifferent colors and color combinations displayed in web pages. Thecentral processing facility 140 in such an example can then use thestatistical color database to determine distinctive colors and/or colorcombinations of interest that can be used to identify web pages. Theexample color recognition processor 475 can then be configuredaccordingly to determine color schemes based on detecting the colorsand/or color combination of interest, while ignoring other (e.g., morecommon and/or non-distinctive) colors and/or color combinations.

In some example implementations, the color scheme(s) determined by thecolor recognition processor 475 are compared to reference color schemesmapped to known web pages. In this way, the color scheme(s) determinedby the color recognition processor 475 can be used to augment thetextual information extracted by the example textual recognitionprocessor 430 for identifying the web page(s) displayed by the monitoredweb browser. Additionally or alternatively, the determined colorscheme(s) alone may be used for identifying displayed web pages, such aswhen the text displayed by an address bar and/or title bar of themonitored web browser is partially or fully obscured by otherinformation (e.g., such as one or more windows corresponding to otherexecuting application(s)) being displayed by the device implementing themonitored web browser(s).

The mappings of reference color schemes to known web pages can bedetermined in any number of ways. For example, color schemes can beassociated with the textual information extracted by the example webbrowser monitor 470, when the latter is available, to associate colorschemes with web pages. Additionally or alternatively, web crawlers orsimilar applications can be used by, for example, the central processingfacility 140 to generate a database of reference color schemes and theirrespective mappings to known web pages. In either example, the mappingsof reference color schemes to known web pages can be updated as thecolor schemes associated with known web sites change.

While an example manner of implementing the first example web browsermonitor 105 of FIG. 1, the second example web browser monitor 205 ofFIG. 2 and/or the third example web browser monitor 305 of FIG. 3 hasbeen illustrated in FIG. 4B, one or more of the elements, processesand/or devices illustrated in FIG. 4B may be combined, divided,re-arranged, omitted, eliminated and/or implemented in any other way.Further, the example video interface 405, the example graphicalrecognition processor 420, the example feature extractor 425, theexample textual recognition processor 430, the example OCR processor435, the example network interface 445, the example video interfaceactivity detector 460, the example color recognition processor 475and/or, more generally, the example web browser monitor 470 of FIG. 4Bmay be implemented by hardware, software, firmware and/or anycombination of hardware, software and/or firmware. Thus, for example,any of the example video interface 405, the example graphicalrecognition processor 420, the example feature extractor 425, theexample textual recognition processor 430, the example OCR processor435, the example network interface 445, the example video interfaceactivity detector 460, the example color recognition processor 475and/or, more generally, the example web browser monitor 470 could beimplemented by one or more circuit(s), programmable processor(s),application specific integrated circuit(s) (ASIC(s)), programmable logicdevice(s) (PLD(s)) and/or field programmable logic device(s) (FPLD(s)),etc. When any of the appended claims are read to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the example web browsermonitor 470, the example video interface 405, the example graphicalrecognition processor 420, the example feature extractor 425, theexample textual recognition processor 430, the example OCR processor435, the example network interface 445, the example video interfaceactivity detector 460 and/or the example color recognition processor 475are hereby expressly defined to include a tangible medium such as amemory, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD,) etc., storingsuch software and/or firmware. Further still, the example web browsermonitor 470 of FIG. 4B may include one or more elements, processesand/or devices in addition to, or instead of, those illustrated in FIG.4B, and/or may include more than one of any or all of the illustratedelements, processes and devices.

Flowcharts representative of example machine readable instructions thatmay be executed to implement the first example system 100, the firstexample web browser monitor 105, the example central processing facility140, the second example system 200, the second example web browsermonitor 205, the third example system 300, the third example web browsermonitor 305, the example web browser monitor 400, the example videointerface 405, the example graphical recognition processor 420, theexample feature extractor 425, the example textual recognition processor430, the example OCR processor 435, the example network interface 445,the example video interface activity detector 460, the example webbrowser monitor 470 and/or the example color recognition processor 475are shown in FIGS. 5 through 8. In these examples, the machine readableinstructions represented by each flowchart may comprise one or moreprograms for execution by: (a) a processor, such as the processor 912shown in the example computer 900 discussed below in connection withFIG. 9, (b) a controller, and/or (c) any other suitable device. The oneor more programs may be embodied in software stored on a tangible mediumsuch as, for example, a flash memory, a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a harddrive, a DVD, or a memory associated with the processor 912, but theentire program or programs and/or portions thereof could alternativelybe executed by a device other than the processor 912 and/or embodied infirmware or dedicated hardware (e.g., implemented by an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), afield programmable logic device (FPLD), discrete logic, etc.). Forexample, any or all of the first example system 100, the first exampleweb browser monitor 105, the example central processing facility 140,the second example system 200, the second example web browser monitor205, the third example system 300, the third example web browser monitor305, the example web browser monitor 400, the example video interface405, the example graphical recognition processor 420, the examplefeature extractor 425, the example textual recognition processor 430,the example OCR processor 435, the example network interface 445, theexample video interface activity detector 460, the example web browsermonitor 470 and/or the example color recognition processor 475 could beimplemented by any combination of software, hardware, and/or firmware.Also, some or all of the machine readable instructions represented bythe flowchart of FIGS. 5 through 8 may be implemented manually. Further,although the example machine readable instructions are described withreference to the flowcharts illustrated in FIGS. 5 through 8, many othertechniques for implementing the example methods and apparatus describedherein may alternatively be used. For example, with reference to theflowcharts illustrated in FIGS. 5 through 8, the order of execution ofthe blocks may be changed, and/or some of the blocks described may bechanged, eliminated, combined and/or subdivided into multiple blocks.

Example machine readable instructions 500 that may be executed toimplement the first example web browser monitor 105 of FIG. 1, thesecond example web browser monitor 205 of FIG. 2, the third example webbrowser monitor 305 of FIG. 3 and/or the example web browser monitor 400of FIG. 4A are represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 5. Forconvenience, and without loss of generality, the execution of theexample machine readable instructions 500 is described in connectionwith the operation of the first example web browser monitor 105 in thefirst example system 100 of FIG. 1, unless otherwise noted. The machinereadable instructions 500 begin execution at block 505 at which thefirst example web browser monitor 105 receives a video signal from thecomputer 115 being monitored. For example, at block 505 the video signalmay be received from the first video connection 130 coupled to the videointerface 125 of the first example web browser monitor 105.Alternatively, turning to the example of FIG. 3, at block 505 the videosignal could be received via a camera implemented by the video interface325 of the third example web browser monitor 305 and positioned tocapture video images corresponding to the monitor 120.

Returning to FIG. 5, control next proceeds to block 510 at which thefirst example web browser monitor 105 detects whether a valid videosignal is received at block 505. For example, and as discussed ingreater detail above, at block 510 a video interface activity detector(e.g., such as the video interface activity detector 460) included inthe first example web browser monitor 105 may determine whether avoltage and/or flicker associated with the video signal received atblock 505 is indicative of a valid video signal. If a valid video signalis not detected (block 510), control advances to block 550. Otherwise,if a valid video signal is detected (block 510), control proceeds toblock 515 at which the first example web browser monitor 105 indicatesthat a valid received video signal has been detected. For example, atblock 515 the video interface activity indicator 180 included in thefirst example web browser monitor 105 may be asserted/activated toindicate that a valid video signal has been received.

Next, control proceeds to block 520 at which the first example webbrowser monitor 105 captures a video image from the video signalreceived at block 505. For example, at block 520 the video interface 125of the first example web browser monitor 105 may capture a video imagefrom the video signal using any appropriate frame capture/grabbingtechnique. Alternatively, at block 520 the video interface 325 of thethird example web browser monitor 305 of FIG. 3 may use its implementedcamera to create sequences of images corresponding to a display device(e.g., such as the monitor 120) positioned within the camera's field ofview. After obtaining a captured video image at block 520, controlproceeds to block 525.

At block 525 the first example web browser monitor 105 performsgraphical recognition processing on the video image captured at block520 to identify and extract one or more image regions corresponding to aweb browser displayed by the monitored device. For example, at block 525the first example web browser monitor 105 may employ one or more featureextraction techniques to identify one or more rectangular regionscorresponding to the address bar 145 and/or title bar 150 of the webbrowser 110 implemented by the computer 115 and displayed via themonitor 120. Example machine readable instructions that may be executedto implement the processing performed at block 525 are shown in FIG. 6and discussed in greater below.

Next, control proceeds to block 530 at which the first example webbrowser monitor 105 determines whether one or more image regionscorresponding to a web browser were identified and extracted at block525 from the video image captured at block 520. If at least one imageregion was identified (block 530), control proceeds to block 535 atwhich the first example web browser monitor 105 performs textualrecognition processing on the image region(s) identified at block 530 todetermine textual information displayed by the web browser undergoingmonitoring. In the illustrated example, at block 535 the first exampleweb browser monitor 105 performs any appropriate OCR to determinetextual information corresponding to an address (e.g., URL or numeric IPaddress) displayed in the address bar of the monitored web browser,and/or to a title of a web page presented by the monitored web browser.For example, at block 535 the first example web browser monitor 105 maysearch for specific strings of text matching a known format foraddresses of web pages presented by the monitored web browser. If suchmatching text strings are found, the first example web browser monitor105 tags the matching strings (and possibly the corresponding imageregion) as corresponding to an address of a web page being presented bythe monitored web browser. Additional textual information, such as titleinformation, (and the image region(s) corresponding thereto) may also betagged at block 535. Example machine readable instructions that may beexecuted to implement the processing performed at block 535 are shown inFIG. 7A and discussed in greater below.

Control next proceeds to block 540 at which the first example webbrowser monitor 105 determines whether any textual information wasdetermined from the image region(s) processed at block 535. If anytextual information was determined (block 540), control proceeds toblock 545 at which the first example web browser monitor 105 stores thedetermined textual information as web browser monitoring data to bereported to a central processing facility (e.g., such as the centralprocessing facility 140). For example, at block 545 the first exampleweb browser monitor 105 stores any identified, extracted and/or taggedaddress information, title information, etc., determined to be includedin the extracted image regions processed at block 535. After storing theweb browser monitoring data at block 545, or after failing to detect avalid received video signal (block 510), or after determining that noimage regions corresponding to a web browser were identified andextracted from the captured video (block 530), or if no relevant textualinformation was determined from any processed image region(s) (block540), control proceeds to block 550.

At block 550, the first example web browser monitor 105 determineswhether it is time to report any stored web browser monitoring data tothe central processing facility 140. For example, at block 550 the firstexample web browser monitor 105 may trigger reporting by determiningwhether a predetermined time interval has expired, whether a particularevent has occurred (e.g., such as a prompt from the central processingfacility 140 to the web browser monitor 105 to report any available webbrowser monitoring data), etc. If the first example web browser monitor105 determines that reporting has been triggered (block 550), controlproceeds to block 555 at which the first example web browser monitor 105reports the stored web browser monitoring data to the appropriatecentral processing facility 140. For example, at block 555 the firstexample web browser monitor 105 may report the web browser monitoringdata to the central processing facility 140 using a second accessnetwork which is the same as or different from a first access networkproviding network connectivity to the monitored device. After reportingthe stored web browser monitoring data at block 555, or if reporting hasnot yet been triggered (block 550), control returns to block 505 andblocks subsequent thereto at which the first example web browser monitor105 continues to receive and process the video signal corresponding tothe monitored device.

Example machine readable instructions 525 that may be executed toimplement the example graphical recognition processor 420 of FIG. 4Aand/or to perform the graphical recognition processing at block 525 ofFIG. 5 are represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 6. The machinereadable instructions 525 begin execution at block of 605 at which theexample graphical recognition processor 420 receives a captured videoimage from a video signal corresponding to a monitored device (e.g.,such as the computer 115) implementing a monitored web browser (e.g.,such as the web browser 110). The captured video image may be receivedfrom, for example, the example video interface 405 or via the processingat block 520 of FIG. 5.

Control next proceeds to block 610 at which the example graphicalrecognition processor 420 performs feature extraction on the capturedvideo image to identify one or more rectangular regions that couldcorrespond to an address bar (e.g., such as the address bar 145) of themonitored web browser (e.g., such as the web browser 110). For example,at block 610 the example feature extractor 425 implemented by theexample graphical recognition processor 420 may perform edge detection,corner detection, blob detection, etc., or any combination thereof, onthe captured video image to identify rectangular region(s) consistentwith an address bar of a web browser. In an example implementation, atblock 610 the example feature extractor 425 operates to identifyrectangular region(s) of the captured image having some or all of thefollowing characteristics consistent with an address bar of a webbrowser: (1) a substantially light solid background having a high aspectratio (i.e., large width relative to a small height), (2) being locateddirectly below a rectangular region having a dark solid background color(e.g., such as the title bar of the web browser), (3) being locatedabove a second large rectangular region (e.g., such as the main body ofthe web browser), etc.

Control next proceeds to block 615 at which the example graphicalrecognition processor 420 determines whether any rectangular regionswere identified at block 610 as possibly corresponding to the addressbar (e.g., such as the address bar 145) of the monitored web browser(e.g., such as the web browser 110). If any such regions were identified(block 615), control proceeds to block 620 at which the examplegraphical recognition processor 420 extracts the region(s) identified atblock 610 from the captured video image and tags the region(s) aspossible address bar region(s). After extracting and tagging theregion(s) at block 620, or if no possible address bar regions wereidentified (block 615), control proceeds to block 625.

At block 625, the example graphical recognition processor 420 performsfeature extraction on the captured video image to identify one or morerectangular regions that could correspond to a title bar (e.g., such asthe title bar 150) of the monitored web browser (e.g., such as the webbrowser 110). For example, at block 625 the example feature extractor425 implemented by the example graphical recognition processor 420 mayperform edge detection, corner detection, blob detection, etc., or anycombination thereof, on the captured video image to identify rectangularregion(s) consistent with a title bar of a web browser. In an exampleimplementation, at block 625 the example feature extractor 425 operatesto identify rectangular region(s) of the captured image having some orall of the following characteristics consistent with a title bar of aweb browser: (1) a substantially dark solid background having a highaspect ratio (i.e., large width relative to a small height), (2) beinglocated above a second large rectangular region (e.g., such as the mainbody of the web browser), etc.

Control next proceeds to block 630 at which the example graphicalrecognition processor 420 determines whether any rectangular regionswere identified at block 625 as possibly corresponding to the title bar(e.g., such as the title bar 150) of the monitored web browser (e.g.,such as the web browser 110). If any such regions were identified (block630), control proceeds to block 635 at which the example graphicalrecognition processor 420 extracts the region(s) identified at block 625from the captured video image and tags the region(s) as possible titlebar region(s). After extracting and tagging the region(s) at block 635,or if no possible title bar regions were identified (block 630),execution of the example machine readable instructions 525 ends.

Example machine readable instructions 535 that may be executed toimplement the example textual recognition processor 430 of FIG. 4Aand/or to perform the textual recognition processing at block 535 ofFIG. 5 are represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 7A. The machinereadable instructions 535 begin execution at block of 705 at which theexample textual recognition processor 430 receives one or more extractedimage regions identified as possibly corresponding to a monitored webbrowser (e.g., such as the web browser 110). The extracted imageregion(s) may be received from, for example, the example graphicalrecognition processor 420 or via the processing at block 525 of FIG. 5.

Control next proceeds to block 710 at which the example textualrecognition processor 430 determines whether any of the one or morereceived image regions are tagged as possible address bar region(s). Ifa possible address bar region is available (block 710), control proceedsto block 715 at which the example textual recognition processor 430performs OCR processing on the possible address bar region(s). Forexample, at block 715 the example OCR processor 435 implemented by theexample textual recognition processor 430 performs any appropriate OCRtechnique for determining textual information included in possibleaddress bar region(s). After identifying any text included in thepossible address bar region(s), control proceeds to block 720.

At block 720, the example textual recognition processor 430 determineswhether any text identified at block 715 matches one or more knownformats of a URL or a numeric IP address corresponding to an address(e.g., such as the address 155) of a web page presented by the monitoredweb browser (e.g., such as the web browser 110). In the illustratedexample, at block 720 the example textual recognition processor 430determines whether any of the text identified at block 715 matches anyof the strings “http://”, “https://”, “ftp://”, “news://”, etc., whichare known to represent the beginning of a web page URL. Additionally(e.g., to improve detection reliability) or alternatively, at block 720the example textual recognition processor 430 could determine whetherany of the text identified at block 715 matches the string “www.” or anysequence of three or four strings of text separated by periods, whichare indicative of the formats of URLs or numeric IP addresses. Ifmatching text is found (block 720), control proceeds to block 725 atwhich the example textual recognition processor 430 extracts and tagsthe matching text as corresponding to the address (e.g., such as theaddress 155) displayed in the address bar (e.g., such as the address bar145) of the monitored web browser (e.g., such as the web browser 110).

After extracting and tagging the address textual information at block725, or if no text matches the known address format(s) (block 720), orif no possible address region(s) were received for processing (block710), control proceeds to block 730. At block 730, the example textualrecognition processor 430 determines whether any of the one or morereceived image regions are tagged as possible title bar region(s). If apossible title bar region is available (block 730), control proceeds toblock 735 at which the example textual recognition processor 430performs OCR processing on the possible title bar region(s). Forexample, at block 735 the example OCR processor 435 implemented by theexample textual recognition processor 430 performs any appropriate OCRtechnique for determining textual information included in possible titlebar region(s). After identifying any text included in the possible titlebar region(s), control proceeds to block 740.

At block 740, the example textual recognition processor 430 determineswhether any text was identified at block 735. If any text was identified(block 740), control proceeds to block 745 at which the example textualrecognition processor 430 extracts and tags the identified text ascorresponding to the title (e.g., such as the title 160) displayed inthe title bar (e.g., such as the title bar 150) of the monitored webbrowser (e.g., such as the web browser 110). After extracting andtagging the textual information (which may be title information) atblock 745, or if no text was identified in a possible title bar region(block 740), execution of the example machine readable instructions 535ends.

Example machine readable instructions 750 that may be executed toimplement the example color recognition processor 475 of FIG. 4B arerepresented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 7B. The example machinereadable instructions 750 of FIG. 7B may also be executed in addition toor instead of the textual recognition processing performed at block 535of FIG. 5. The machine readable instructions 750 begin execution atblock of 755 at which the example color recognition processor 475receives one or more extracted image regions identified as possiblycorresponding to a monitored web browser (e.g., such as the web browser110). The extracted image region(s) may be received from, for example,the example graphical recognition processor 420 or via the processing atblock 525 of FIG. 5.

Control next proceeds to block 760 at which the example colorrecognition processor 475 extracts color information from the extractedimage region(s) received at block 755. For example, at block 760 theexample color recognition processor 475 may extract red, green and/orblue values from all or some subsampled set of the pixels included inthe extracted image region(s). Next, control proceeds to block 765 atwhich the example color recognition processor 475 discards the colorinformation extracted at block 760 that corresponds to common (e.g.,non-distinctive) colors. For example, and as discussed above inconnection with FIG. 4B, the central processing facility 140 maymaintain a statistical color database to track colors and colorcombinations displayed in web pages. The central processing facility 140may then use this statistical information to determine distinctivecolors and/or color combinations of interest that can be used toidentify web pages. In such an example, at block 765 the example colorrecognition processor 475 discards the colors that are not of interest(e.g., that are common/non-distinctive) and then determines a colorscheme for the image region(s) based on the remaining color information.As discussed above, the color scheme determined at block 765 may includea histogram representing a distribution of a number of pixels in theimage region(s) displaying certain colors of interest.

Next, control proceeds to block 770 at which the example colorrecognition processor 475 determines whether textual informationassociated with the monitored web page's address and/or title bar isavailable. If such textual information is available, control proceeds toblock 775 at which the example color recognition processor 475 tags thecolor scheme determined at block 765 to indicate that the determinedcolor scheme is mapped to the available address and/or title text (and,thus, the corresponding web page). Execution of the example machinereadable instructions 775 then ends. However, if address and/or titlebar textual information is not available (block 770), control proceedsto block 780. At block 780, the example color recognition processor 475tags the color scheme determined at block 765 to indicate that thedetermined color scheme is not mapped to any textual information and,thus, is to be used, for example, as the sole identifier of the web pagedisplayed by the monitored web browser. Execution of the example machinereadable instructions then ends.

Example machine readable instructions 800 that may be executed toimplement the central processing facility 140 of FIGS. 1, 2 and/or 3 arerepresented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 8. For convenience, andwithout loss of generality, the execution of the example machinereadable instructions 800 is described in connection with the operationof the example central processing facility 140 in the first examplesystem 100 of FIG. 1, unless otherwise noted. The machine readableinstructions 800 begin execution at block of 805 at which the examplecentral processing facility 140 receives reported web browser monitoringdata from a web browser monitor (e.g., such as the example web browsermonitor 105). For example, at block 805 the example central processingfacility 140 may receive address and/or title textual informationcorresponding to address(es) (e.g., such as the address 155) and/ortitle(s) (e.g., such as the title 160) displayed by a monitored webbrowser (e.g., such as the web browser 110). Additionally oralternatively, at block 805 the example central processing facility 140may receive determined color scheme(s) corresponding to web page(s)displayed by the monitored web browser (e.g., such as the web browser110).

Next, control proceeds to block 810 at which the example centralprocessing facility 140 determines whether any of the received webbrowser monitoring data is tagged to indicate the type of monitoringdata being reported. For example, tags may be included with the reporteddata to indicate whether the reported data includes address textualinformation, title textual information, determined color schemes, etc.If the reported data is tagged (block 810), control proceeds to block815. At block 815, the example central processing facility 140correlates any tagged address textual information with known addresses(e.g., URLs and/or numeric IP addresses) corresponding to reference websites (and/or web page(s)) being tracked by the example centralprocessing facility 140. Additionally, at block 815, the example centralprocessing facility 140 correlates any tagged title textual informationwith known titles corresponding to reference web sites (and/or webpage(s)) being tracked by the example central processing facility 140.Furthermore, at block 815, the example central processing facility 140correlates any tagged color scheme information with known color schemescorresponding to reference web sites (and/or web page(s)) being trackedby the example central processing facility 140.

After performing the correlation(s) at block 815, control proceeds toblock 820 at which the example central processing facility 140determines whether any of the reported data matched one or morereference web site(s) (and/or web page(s)). If a match was found (block820), control proceeds to block 825 at which the example centralprocessing facility 140 reports that the matched reference web site(s)(and/or web page(s)) was/(were) accessed via the monitored web browser(e.g., such as the web browser 110) corresponding to the reported datareceived at block 805. However, if no match was found (block 820) or thereported data received at block 805 included no tagged information(block 810), control proceeds to block 830 at which the example centralprocessing facility 140 outputs the raw reported data, which may includeaddress information (e.g., URL(s) and/or numeric IP address(es)) titleinformation, and/or color scheme information to indicate the web site(s)(and/or web page(s)) accessed via the monitored web browser (e.g., suchas the web browser 110) corresponding to the reported data received atblock 805. Next, at block 835 the central processing facility 140performs any appropriate statistical processing to determine web browserusage ratings from the reported web browser monitoring data. Afterprocessing at block 835 completes, execution of the example machinereadable instructions 800 ends.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example computer 900 capable ofimplementing the apparatus and methods disclosed herein. The computer900 can be, for example, a server, a personal computer, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), an Internet appliance, a DVD player, a CDplayer, a digital video recorder, a personal video recorder, a set topbox, or any other type of computing device.

The system 900 of the instant example includes a processor 912 such as ageneral purpose programmable processor. The processor 912 includes alocal memory 914, and executes coded instructions 916 present in thelocal memory 914 and/or in another memory device. The processor 912 mayexecute, among other things, the machine readable instructionsrepresented in FIGS. 5-8. The processor 912 may be any type ofprocessing unit, such as one or more microprocessors from the Intel®Centrino® family of microprocessors, the Intel® Pentium® family ofmicroprocessors, the Intel® Itanium® family of microprocessors, and/orthe Intel XScale® family of processors. Of course, other processors fromother families are also appropriate.

The processor 912 is in communication with a main memory including avolatile memory 918 and a non-volatile memory 920 via a bus 922. Thevolatile memory 918 may be implemented by Static Random Access Memory(SRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), Dynamic RandomAccess Memory (DRAM), RAMBUS Dynamic Random Access Memory (RDRAM) and/orany other type of random access memory device. The non-volatile memory920 may be implemented by flash memory and/or any other desired type ofmemory device. Access to the main memory 918, 920 is typicallycontrolled by a memory controller (not shown).

The computer 900 also includes an interface circuit 924. The interfacecircuit 924 may be implemented by any type of interface standard, suchas an Ethernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB), and/or a thirdgeneration input/output (3GIO) interface.

One or more input devices 926 are connected to the interface circuit924. The input device(s) 926 permit a user to enter data and commandsinto the processor 912. The input device(s) can be implemented by, forexample, a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, a track-pad, a trackball,an isopoint and/or a voice recognition system.

One or more output devices 928 are also connected to the interfacecircuit 924. The output devices 928 can be implemented, for example, bydisplay devices (e.g., a liquid crystal display, a cathode ray tubedisplay (CRT)), by a printer and/or by speakers. The interface circuit924, thus, typically includes a graphics driver card.

The interface circuit 924 also includes a communication device such as amodem or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal computers via a network (e.g., an Ethernet connection, adigital subscriber line (DSL), a telephone line, coaxial cable, acellular telephone system, etc.).

The computer 900 also includes one or more mass storage devices 930 forstoring software and data. Examples of such mass storage devices 930include floppy disk drives, hard drive disks, compact disk drives anddigital versatile disk (DVD) drives. The mass storage device 930 mayimplement the example storage unit 440. Alternatively, the volatilememory 918 may implement the example storage unit 440.

As an alternative to implementing the methods and/or apparatus describedherein in a system such as the device of FIG. 9, the methods and orapparatus described herein may be embedded in a structure such as aprocessor and/or an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit).

From the foregoing disclosure, at least some of the example methods andapparatus described herein perform nonintrusive web browser monitoringwithout requiring any access to the software platform or internalhardware of the computing device (e.g., computer) implementing themonitored web browser. In these examples, an external web browsermonitor determines web browser usage from captured video imagescorresponding to a web browser displayed by the computing device. Giventhe prevalence of software applications capable of being downloaded toand executed on computing devices to perform all sorts of monitoring,the use of such an external web browser monitor for monitoring webbrowser usage can seem counterintuitive and unexpected. Yet, in at leastsome example implementations, the external web browser monitor describedherein yields benefits over one or more conventional software monitoringapplications executing on the computing device.

For example, an external web browser monitor can be especiallybeneficial when conventional software monitoring applications are bannedby an enterprise due to, for example, concerns regarding increased risksof viruses and/or software program incompatibilities. Such softwareprogram incompatibilities can arise from, for example, installationand/or execution of the conventional software monitoring application(s)conflicting with one or more firewalls, virus protection applications,operating systems, etc., already installed and/or executing on thecomputing device. In contrast, at least some of the example external webbrowser monitor implementations described herein operate autonomouslyfrom the monitored computing device and, thus, are compatible withalmost any type of computing device regardless of manufacturer,operating system, etc. Moreover, at least some example web browsermonitor implementations described herein overcome the deficiencies ofexisting nonintrusive techniques which, as described above, are tailoredto monitoring television broadcasts and other media contentpresentations, but are unsuitable for monitoring web browser usagenonintrusively.

Finally, although certain example methods, apparatus and articles ofmanufacture have been described herein, the scope of coverage of thispatent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers allmethods, apparatus and articles of manufacture fairly falling within thescope of the appended claims either literally or under the doctrine ofequivalents.

1. A method for monitoring web browsing, the method comprising:obtaining a video signal from a video output of a device implementing aweb browser; performing graphical recognition processing on a videoimage obtained from the video signal to extract an image region lessthan the entire video image, the extracted image region displaying atleast a portion of the web browser, the portion of the web browserincluding at least a portion of an address bar; performing textualrecognition processing to determine textual information displayed in theportion of the address bar included in the extracted image region of thevideo image; and using the textual information to record usage of theweb browser.
 2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the image regionextracted from the video image is a rectangular region including atleast the portion of the address bar of the web browser.
 3. A method asdefined in claim 2 wherein the rectangular region is a first rectangularregion and the method further comprises performing graphical recognitionprocessing on the video image to extract a second rectangular regionincluding at least a portion of a title bar of the web browser.
 4. Amethod as defined in claim 3 wherein performing textual recognitionprocessing further comprises performing optical character recognition todetermine at least a portion of a title corresponding to a web pagedisplayed by the web browser.
 5. A method as defined in claim 1 whereinusing the textual information to record usage of the web browsercomprises determining a URL represented by at least a portion of thetextual information.
 6. A method as defined in claim 5 wherein thedetermined URL corresponds to a web page processed by the web browser.7. A method as defined in claim 5 further comprising reporting thedetermined URL to a central processing facility, the central processingfacility to process the URL to determine a web site corresponding to aweb page processed by the web browser.
 8. A method as defined in claim 1wherein the address bar is to display at least a portion of a uniformresource locator (URL) corresponding to a web page displayed by the webbrowser.
 9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the graphicalrecognition processing comprises at least one of edge detection, cornerdetection or blob detection.
 10. A method as defined in claim 1 whereinperforming textual recognition processing comprises performing opticalcharacter recognition to determine at least a portion of a URL or anumeric Internet protocol address corresponding to a web page displayedby the web browser.
 11. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein obtainingthe video signal from the video output of the device comprises splittinga video connection coupling the video output with a display device. 12.An apparatus to monitor Internet usage, the apparatus comprising: avideo interface, implemented by at least one of hardware or acombination of hardware and at least one of software or firmware, toaccept a video signal from a device implementing a web browser; agraphical recognition processor to extract a rectangular image regionthat is a subset of a video image of the video signal, the extractedrectangular image region having an image characteristic corresponding toa presentation of at least a portion of an address bar of the webbrowser included in the video image; a textual recognition processor toextract uniform resource locator (URL) information included in theextracted rectangular image region; and a network interface to reportthe extracted URL information to a central processing facility to trackusage of the web browser.
 13. An apparatus as defined in claim 12wherein the extracted rectangular image region is a first extractedrectangular image region, and the graphical recognition processor isfurther to extract a second rectangular image region from the videoimage, the second extracted rectangular image region having an imagecharacteristic corresponding to a presentation of at least a portion ofa title bar of the web browser displayed in the video image of the videosignal.
 14. An apparatus as defined in claim 13 wherein the textualrecognition processor is further to extract title information includedin the second extracted rectangular image region.
 15. An apparatus asdefined in claim 12 wherein the video interface comprises a videosplitter to split the video signal into a first video signal and asecond video signal, wherein the first video signal is provided to thevideo interface and the second video signal is provided to a display.16. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 wherein the network interface isto report the extracted title information to the central processingfacility.
 17. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 wherein the networkinterface is to interface with an access network providing networkconnectivity for the device implementing the web browser.
 18. Anapparatus as defined in claim 12 wherein the network interface is tointerface with a first access network different from a second accessnetwork providing network connectivity for the device implementing theweb browser.
 19. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 further comprisinga video interface activity detector to indicate whether an active videosignal has been applied to the video interface.
 20. An apparatus tomonitor Internet usage, the apparatus comprising: a video interface toaccept a video signal from a device implementing a web browser, whereinthe video interface comprises a camera positioned to capture videoimages associated with a display of the device implementing the webbrowser to generate the video signal; a graphical recognition processorto extract a rectangular image region that is a subset of a video imageof the video signal, the extracted rectangular image region having animage characteristic corresponding to a presentation of at least aportion of an address bar of the web browser included in the videoimage; a textual recognition processor to extract uniform resourcelocator (URL) information included in the extracted rectangular imageregion; and a network interface to report the extracted URL informationto a central processing facility to track usage of the web browser. 21.An apparatus to monitor Internet usage, the apparatus comprising: avideo interface, implemented by at least one of hardware or acombination of hardware and at least one of software or firmware, toaccept a video signal from a device implementing a web browser; agraphical recognition processor to extract a rectangular image regionthat is a subset of a video image of the video signal, the extractedrectangular image region having an image characteristic corresponding toa presentation of at least a portion of an address bar of the webbrowser included in the video image, wherein the graphical recognitionprocessor is to: determine whether the rectangular image region has afirst image characteristic corresponding to the rectangular image regionhaving a light solid background and a high aspect ratio; determinewhether the rectangular image region has a second image characteristiccorresponding to the rectangular image region being located below asecond rectangular region having a dark solid background; determinewhether the rectangular image region has a third image characteristiccorresponding to the rectangular image region being located above athird rectangular region; and extract the rectangular image region fromthe video image when the rectangular image region is determined to havethe first, second and third image characteristics; a textual recognitionprocessor to extract uniform resource locator (URL) information includedin the extracted rectangular image region; and a network interface toreport the extracted URL information to a central processing facility totrack usage of the web browser.